-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: May 18, 2007 4:49:17 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Biting the Magic Bullet
Scientists Cast Doubt
on Kennedy Bullet Analysis
Multiple Shooters Possible, Study Says
By John Solomon
Washington Post, May 17, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/
AR2007051601967.html?hpid=topnews
In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy
theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist
is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to
conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald alone shot the two bullets that
struck and killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally
flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied
Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin
and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and
William D. James.
The researchers' re-analysis involved new statistical calculations
and a modern chemical analysis of bullets from the same batch
Oswald is purported to have used. They reached no conclusion about
whether more than one gunman was involved, but urged that
authorities conduct a new and complete forensic re-analysis of the
five bullet fragments left from the assassination in Dallas.
"Given the significance and impact of the JFK assassination, it is
scientifically desirable for the evidentiary fragments to be re-
analyzed," the researchers said.
Tobin was the FBI lab's chief metallurgy expert for more than two
decades. He analyzed metal evidence in major cases that included
the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight
800 off Long Island.
After retiring, he attracted national attention by questioning the
FBI science used in prosecutions for decades to match bullets to
crime suspects through their lead content. The questions he and
others raised prompted a National Academy of Sciences review that
in 2003 concluded that the FBI's bullet lead analysis was flawed.
The FBI agreed and generally ended the use of that type of analysis.
Using new guidelines set forth by the National Academy of Sciences
for proper bullet analysis, Tobin and his colleagues at Texas
A&M re-analyzed the bullet evidence provided to the 1976 House
Select Committee on Assassinations to support the conclusion that
only one shooter, Oswald, fired the shots that killed Kennedy.
Now-deceased University of California at Irvine chemist Vincent P.
Guinn. told the committee that he used bullet lead analysis to
conclude that the five bullet fragments recovered from the Kennedy
assassination scene came from just two bullets, which were traced
to the same batch of bullets Oswald owned. Guinn's conclusions were
consistent with the 1960s Warren Commission Report that found
Oswald had acted alone. The House assassinations committee,
however, concluded that Oswald probably was part of a conspiracy
and that it was possible a second shooter fired one shot that
missed the president.
Tobin, Spiegelman and James said they bought the same brand and lot
of bullets used by Oswald and analyzed their lead using the new
standards. The bullets from that batch are still on the market as
collectors' items.
They found that the scientific and statistical assumptions Guinn
used -- and the government accepted at the time -- to conclude that
the fragments came from just two bullets fired from Oswald's gun
were wrong.
"This finding means that the bullet fragments from the
assassination that match could have come from three or more
separate bullets," the researchers said. "If the assassination
fragments are derived from three or more separate bullets, then a
second assassin is likely," the researchers said. If the five
fragments came from three or more bullets, that would mean a second
gunman's bullet would have had to strike the president, the
researchers explained.
----------------------
http://judiciary.senate.gov/oldsite/51099wat.htm
Before
the UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE ON
ADMINISTRATIVE OVERSIGHT AND THE COURTS
PRE-FILED TESTIMONY OF SSA WILLIAM A. TOBIN
FORMER CHIEF FORENSIC METALLURGIST FBI CRIME LABORATORY
May 10, 1999
WILLIAM. A. TOBIN
On June 27, 1971, Mr. William A. Tobin was appointed a Special
Agent for the FBI. Before joining the Bureau, Mr. Tobin served
three years in the Marine Corps - two in active combat duty in the
Republic of South Vietnam. While in the Marines he received the
Bronze Star with Combat "V," two crosses of Gallantry and twenty
additional military combat decorations. After joining the FBI he
worked organized crime and police corruption in Chicago, and
general crimes in Detroit. In September, 1974 Mr. Tobin was
assigned as a forensic metallurgist in the FBI crime laboratory in
Washington, D.C. In 1976 he was promoted to a Supervisory Special
Agent and in 1986 became the civilian equivalent of the FBI's Chief
Forensic Metallurgist. In this position, Mr. Tobin was the leading
expert, nationwide, in the law enforcement community on forensic
metallurgy (i.e. the examination and analysis of material's
deformation and damage).
In this position, Mr. Tobin was qualified as an expert witness on
behalf of the FBI or the U.S. government in over 200 local, state
and federal courts.
He served as the FBI's leading forensic metallurgist on thousands
of cases, such as the UNABOM, Judge Robert S. Vance mail bomb
murder case and numerous accident/disaster cases (i.e. the
Escambron Beach Puerto Rico Oil Spill, the Willow Island West
Virginia Scaffold Collapse, the Wilberg Coal Mine Disaster in Utah,
the Panama City Florida Train Derailment, the USS Iowa explosion
and the Mobile, Alabama Train Derailment). In his 24 years in the
crime lab Mr. Tobin provided forensic analyses in approximately
75-100 aircraft incidents (i.e, ranging from mechanical failures to
suspected sabotage to actual crash damage examinations).
In regard to the July 17, 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, Mr. Tobin
arrived in New York at the crash reconstruction site on August 4,
1996. He devoted his efforts as the FBI's chief metallurgist at the
crash reconstruction site for 89 straight days, and as necessary
thereafter. The science of metallurgy is the only scientifically
appropriate discipline to evaluate metal damage and causes of the
metal damage of the recovered parts of Flight 800. Mr. Tobin was
the most scientifically qualified and experienced metallurgist
involved in the evaluation of the crash damaged materials in the
law enforcement community.
Mr. Tobin repeatedly raised concerns to FBI personnel and officials
who were in control of the "criminal" investigation of the crash of
TWA Flight 800. Mr. Tobin will answer questions regarding the
concerns he raised, the bases for these concerns, the
administrative response to these concerns and the impact of these
concerns on future disaster/public safety investigations.
For three decades Mr. Tobin loyally and effectively served the
American public, first, in combat, second as an agent for the FBI
and then as a scientist for the FBI. He continuously obtained
"exceptional" or "outstanding" performance ratings and was the
recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including five
separate commendations and cash awards issued by two directors for
the FBI and a personal commendation from the U.S. Attorney General.
At the TWA crash investigation site in Calverton, New York, Mr.
Tobin stressed the importance of strict adherence to the
professional scientific process, despite the pressures from federal
law enforcement officials in charge of the investigation. The
actions of Mr. Tobin, and other investigators at the crash scene,
prevented a false identification of the cause of the crash. Had Mr.
Tobin and others succumbed to the pressure to validate the "bomb"
or "missile" theories, the public safety of the American people
would have been betrayed.
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